Salem Printing Strikes Deal for Advanced Direct

WINSTON-SALEM, NC—Salem Printing, one of the largest commercial, packaging and flexographic printers in the Southeast, has acquired Advanced Direct Inc. (ADI), a full-service direct marketing company based in Greensboro, NC. The two companies have worked together as business partners for years, with Salem looking to ADI as a vendor for direct mail, tracking and data mining services. Both companies are privately owned.

“We are two strong, successful companies that have come together to become even stronger,” said Phil Kelley Jr., president and CEO of Salem Printing. “Over the past decade, as the number of printing organizations declined by 40 percent, Salem Printing grew more than 400 percent. Together with ADI, we become one of the 200 largest packaging, print, mail and direct marketing companies in the nation, and one of the 15 largest in the Southeast.

“Most important, our services mesh perfectly with almost no overlap, and our corporate cultures are an absolute overlay,” Kelley continued. “If you visit ADI’s Website and then go to ours, you will see the compatibility of services and amazingly similar expressions of corporate values and commitment to excellence. Both companies have succeeded by functioning as a strategic, solutions-oriented partner to upscale clients, bringing documented, definable value that optimizes the return on their print and marketing investment.”

ADI, a 23-year-old firm, will operate in its current location as a division of Salem Printing. Jeff Burkett, CEO of ADI, said he didn't expect any changes in personnel. ADI also operates a sales and marketing office in Atlanta. It has 42 employees in the two locations. Salem Printing has 83 employees at its headquarters/production plant in Winston-Salem.

Both companies work with major regional and national brands, including specialty retailers, financial institutions, business-to-business marketers, agencies, display and marketing organizations, and not-for-profit organizations. Both have expanded their vision to embrace evolving technologies such as social media, helping clients find effective and cost-efficient ways to integrate printed communications with other forms of message delivery.

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